


Bath

by VioletArrows



Category: The Yogscast
Genre: Bathing/Washing, Blackrock Chronicles, Caretaking, F/M, Fluff, Romantic Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-01
Updated: 2019-06-01
Packaged: 2020-04-06 03:44:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,728
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19054567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VioletArrows/pseuds/VioletArrows
Summary: I wrote this ages and ages ago for a Tumblr contest, but presented something else instead and I still regret my choice.This takes place immediately after Zoey returns to Blackrock after destroying the Rebel Enclave, and Rythian has just fought the Enderdragon.





	Bath

“I’m here, you’re here, Teep’s here. Everything’s going to be fine.” Rythian sighed in relief. The Queen of The End was gone. Everyone was safe for now. Zoey didn’t hate him.

“Rythian?” Zoey waved her hand in front of his face. “You alright?”

“Mm.” He leaned against the wall and started to slump over. The last several days were finally catching up with him. His body and mind plates had been keeping him alive and awake for who knows how long, through so many horrors.

Zoey was tired herself from her personal revolt against Prince Jeff, imprisonment, escape from the Rebel Enclave, and all the running to get back to Blackrock. But she managed to slip her arm around his waist and barely catch him before he hit the floor. “Okay, Rythian… you’re kinda heavy. Or maybe it’s this armor. Let’s go upstairs. Come on. Oof!”

They trudged upstairs, Rythian shedding mangled pieces of Infernal armor across the house to lighten the load. Even with all of his magic and armor, the Enderdragon’s attacks had broken through and done quite a lot of damage. And as much as she wanted to crawl into bed, she was covered in dirt, dust, and ash, and he was just a mess. Rubble in his hair, burns along his body, bleeding where something had managed to puncture his armor, and his once brilliant purple and sort of scary eyes had gone dim. She dragged him into the bathroom.

“Still with me? I want to get us cleaned up some, but the water’s still broken and looks like it’s leaking and you’ve let the place go, so-”

“Magic.” He mumbled and sat on the edge of the tub. “Here. I know you can do it.”

Zoey looked down and whined as he slipped his Void ring into her palm. The square, inky stone was cracked. “But… I… nnn…”

“Imagine clean, warm water flowing through the ring. Pure water and a vibrant flame. Solid calcite marble forming the floor and wall. You built our home, Zoey. You know it inside and out.” As he pulled his shirt off, the Body Stone crumbled from its leather cord around his neck and turned to dust. Almost all of his magic was spent.

“Guess I need another one of those.”

She watched him rest his head on his knees and nodded. Clean water. Okay. A flame to heat it. Sealing the cracked floor and tub. Uhm, hm, no. Simple concepts. Solid rock. She concentrated on seeing the fixed room through the ring, and in turn, pulled the broken pieces of the room back together. The tepid standing water swirled down the drain, and new, steamy water billowed from the ring and all of the taps in the bathroom. A thick blanket of steam spilled out into the hallway.

Rythian nodded his approval, and turned away to remove the rest of his clothing. “See?”

Zoey inhaled a bit as her eyes followed Rythian’s back muscles shifting lower and, wow she missed that sight after nothing but Teep and small, angry mushrooms for months, but decided not to take the bait. “Nn.”

Rythian carefully eased himself into the soothing, hot water, while Zoey kicked her boots and tattered clothes into the corner. He couldn’t imagine what she’d been through, enough that all of her belongings were gone and she was as rambling mad as ever. Yet, she was lucid enough to use his advanced magic as if she’d always had it in her. Of course she can only do it when she’s too tired to argue or overthink it. He’d have to find a way to help her work around that, later.

He draped his arms and head over the bath’s side and tried to relax, but everything ached and burned as if the castle had fallen on him. Parts of it had. He glanced up and saw pale, freckly, beautiful curves all the way up. That helped quite a bit in bringing out a little smile. His eyes dropped shut as she turned and slid in behind him. She groaned and soft, muddy skin slid along the outsides of his thighs and lower back.

“Ugh. I think I stood too close to some of those explosions. …Lean back.” She rested her back against the wall of the tub and nudged him backwards.

“Explosions? What in the world…” He quickly gave up and did as he was told, until his head rested against her breasts. She giggled at him when he tried to sit up again and found he couldn’t with a short “Ahk!” It took him a few moments to stop tensing up over and over.

They stayed mostly quiet as soaps, oils, healing salts, cloths, and shampoo were passed around. One of the cloths replaced Rythian’s mask, and she could see him smile weakly underneath it. Zoey managed to get him to get rid of the burnt and bloody bandages wrapping his arms; she winced at the glowing scars etched deep into his palms.

“Why don’t you heal these with magic?”

The tired mage searched around in the cloudy water for an answer. “Not everything can be solved with more magic.”

He balled his fist and whispered healing words into it, only for the bright purple lines to spread tiny branches along his forearm. He gasped sharply and dropped his hand back into the water. “Always be careful about how you use magic, Zoey.”

“Mm.” She continued to clean the wounds she found. Two were shallow puncture wounds under his ribs from very large teeth. “But you can fly, and blow things up, and make lightning strike. She shouldn’t have been able to even touch you.”

“The Queen of The End is very powerful, very fast, and very, _very_ angry with me.” He sighed. He knew she’d just admonish him if he said most of what he absorbed was to keep their castle from being completely destroyed. He slumped down into the water and burbled. “I don’t want to think about it right now.”

Zoey sighed and finished helping him, then tended to herself. Rythian rather awkwardly turned sideways so his legs dangled out of the tub, and rubbed her long legs and feet across his lap. Something amused him about her toes and he drew a slow, ticklish line along one, only to get splashed and a knee bumping up against his sore side. “Ow! Aah, okay!” He went back to only rubbing her feet, making her purr. Much better.

After a while of mindless drifting and almost falling asleep in the water, the water had gone cool, so Rythian finally pulled himself out of the tub. Zoey didn’t ask about how that washcloth was staying on his face. And then it stopped mattering as she started giggling.

“Heheheh… butt.” She leered over the edge of the tub.

Rythian looked over himself, only to go weak-limbed and have to lean against the wall over the towel rack. This only made her laugh harder. He grumbled back and dropped her towel over her head.

“You’re the one whose butt’s getting all pruny.”

Instead of using it to cover herself, she wrapped the towel around her hair, grabbed his towel, and used that to dry herself.

“Now what am I supposed to do?” He frowned.

“I dunno, magic yourself dry.” She shrugged.

He sighed and took the towel from her hair, waved it dry with an air spell, and cinched it at his waist before walking across the hall. Their bedroom was a wreck. Hopefully tonight would be clear and warm; that hole in the ceiling was a little close to the bed. A particularly strong elbow drop into the dragon’s chest at the beginning of the battle had bounced her off of the roof. That was a quick end to that sort of roughhousing.

Zoey slipped around the man entranced in the doorway and went behind the dressing screen. The noise of her rifling around in the trunk woke him up and drew him over to see what she was doing. She pulled out changes of clothing for both of them, candles, and sat several rolls of bandages and first aid items on the dresser.

The candles went to a few places around the room, just enough to help them see each other, but not too bright like torches would have been. Then they helped each other fix the bed; the crumpled top sheet was shaken out and used as a canopy to replace the torn one, while a new, clean sheet from a trunk was thrown over the lumpy mattress. Extra cushions, pillows, and a blanket from the lounge were brought upstairs.

It took everything they had not to pass out then and there, but they managed to patch each other up first. He showed her how to wrap his hands. She let him brace himself on her shoulders before dressing and covering the two holes in his side. He took care of her cuts and scrapes. She rubbed burn salve and potion into the enchanted fire burns across his stomach. At last, most of the pain was dulled. He was able to move a little easier and turned to face her.

“Thank you, Zoey. You’ll be a great mage.” Rythian squeezed her hand and showed her the ring again. The crack had sealed itself.

She blushed a little, then patted his damp hair. “No probs.” She was pondering his words, but her eyes looked to his scarred arms and various injuries. Her mind flashed with all of the fighting that had borne this mess in the first place.

He caught her staring, but let it go. Now wasn’t the time to bring any of that up. In his hesitation, she slid away from him and started pulling her sleeping clothes on. Rythian dropped his head onto a pillow and sighed. Their eyes met for a split second, but with more sheer exhaustion than anything.

Now that she was back, the lumpy, disheveled bed was suddenly even more comfortable to him than when it was new. He couldn’t even say good night to her before he was out like a light; the first hint of natural sleep he’d had in weeks. She noted the tiny smile across his scarred and End shadow-stained lips, then curled up close behind him and slid her arm around him again.


End file.
